Our Staff
Meet Our Expert Gardeners
Our diverse and experienced team of open source enthusiasts has come together to create a safe and sustainable open source ecosystem. We bring expertise from various backgrounds, allowing us to offer unique perspectives and innovative solutions that help organizations cultivate their open source gardens.
Silona Bonewald
CEO
Silona Bonewald is the Queen Bee at Leadingbit Solutions, guiding the creation of CitableAI, a comprehensive platform offering the open source community cost-effective options for developing and validating their projects. Her experience in Open Source governance informed her work launching the IEEE SA OPEN platform, as its Executive Director, and continues to inform her work as a founding member of the Foundation for Open Source Ecosystems Technology. Previously, she was vice president of community architecture at Hyperledger, a global open source collaborative effort hosted by The Linux Foundation, where she integrated leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things (IoT), supply chains, and manufacturing. Other notable career accomplishments include, while with PayPal, pioneering the InnerSource process and enabling enterprise search; for Siemens AG, creating a cutting-edge and Six Sigma-compliant e-commerce website; and for Ubisoft, creating an international content management system (CMS) architecture.
She is grateful to share with and learn from the amazing groups at Open@RIT, CHAOSS, InnerSource Commons Foundation, Foundation for Public Code, Eclipse’s Good Governance Initiative, Government Blockchain Association, IEEE SA’s Open Source Software Project Governance working group, Global Business Blockchain Council and Open Forum Europe.
Raul Pineda
CTO
Raul Pineda is a seasoned IT professional with over 25 years of experience spanning infrastructure architecture, operations management, and IT solutions leadership in various sectors, including defense contracting, banking, insurance, and IT consulting. As a passionate advocate for open source, Raul has been instrumental in implementing DevSecOps and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) on an open source productivity platform he architected for the IEEE community platform and LeadingBit Solutions. He has actively contributed to events such as OSCON, and Innersource Commons summits, and notably was a speaker at OpenUK State of Open Con23 in London, discussing Platform Engineering. Serving as the Chief Technology Officer at Leadingbit Solutions, Raul has showcased expertise in developing technology strategies that synergize with business objectives, especially in open-source software. His distinguished career, marked by roles at BAE Systems, Inc. and CSC, is complemented by his education at The University of Texas at Austin. Recognized for his commitment and excellence, Raul’s contributions to the IT industry have been acknowledged with multiple awards, underscoring his blend of technical prowess, leadership, and community-building efforts.
Beth Hancock
Director of Program Management
Beth believes that people are the core of every project. She is enthralled by human interactions: how people feel, think, communicate, and relate to one; how we organize ourselves into communities and how our interactions in those communities help or hinder us as we create new paths, build communities and facilitate interactions between individuals and communities of people. Guiding an Open Source platform offers a unique opportunity for her to create a shared experience with a wide variety of people in multiple groups. She has a deep commitment to supporting community-led projects and growing them through co-active coaching and servant-leadership. Beth has worked with a range of cooperative efforts: from volunteer-run arts festivals to team-led Agile software development. A cheerleader for Open Source software since writing email in Pine during her college years, she is grateful to have this chance to support the Open Source community.
Trevor Goodman
Events Coordinator
Trevor brings a wealth of skills from across the people-sector. They are an events industry veteran experienced in developing and running technology-focused OS and privacy-oriented conferences. They also have a background in psychology, community development, and volunteer work and have professionally supported non-profits, for-profits, cooperatives, and the City of Austin. Coordinating for the Austin Convention Center and Palmer Events Center, they planned over 100 events annually, including cultural, religious, and corporate events. While working for Quest Events, they transformed the Austin market, developing and training the staff, and improving processes for freighting and warehousing for the event decor rental company. Finally, Trevor is hilarious, reliable, and a good friend.
Sarah Womer
Research Advisor and Business Intelligence Analyst
Sarah has over 25 years of experience in Open Source intelligence, research, analysis, strategic communications, mass and social media, and public affairs. She is an advocate and enthusiast of Open Source for Good and Human Rights. In addition, she passionately cares about online safety and privacy for adults and youth. Currently, she is a Senior Analyst with Plessas Experts Network and a volunteer with IEEE SA Open. Previously she worked on a variety of Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) contracts in support of the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Defense and as a Middle East Affairs consultant and journalist. She has created multiple analytical products, authored a few articles, traveled to some countries, and speaks some of a few languages.
Sonia Santana
Web Developer
Sonia is an innovative web developer and small business owner with over 20 years of experience working with nonprofit and for-profit clients, providing website design and hosting services. She has extensive experience designing, testing and maintaining websites. Sonia is skilled with Content Management Systems. Sonia specializes in using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and SQL web development tools. She is now diving into learning Open Source software tools in the development process while working with Leadingbit Solutions LLC. Sonia is a GitLab Certified Git Associate.
Izzy Pineda
Social Media Coordinator
With a genuine passion for creating and nurturing communities, Izzy believes that social media has the power to bring people closer, inspire change, and build lasting relationships. She strives to cultivate online communities that thrive and flourish by creating engaging and impactful content that resonates with audiences. In continuing to create a vibrant and inclusive online world, Izzy hopes to encourage more users to embrace the collaborative nature of Open Source technology.
Jade Kenney
Graphic Design Intern
Jade has a love for art and design which she is able to channel through website design and development. She believes that an easily accessible and interactive platform can help encourage community engagement and create a happy online environment. Previous to this Jade focused mainly on painting as her art form, but has since branched into digital art and design. She is excited to be involved in the Open Source community and its various platforms. Jade is currently attending New York University and based in NYC.
